A North Carolina man says his attorney did an insufficient job of representing him and wants a federal judge to overturn his conviction of complicity to commit murder in the death of his ex-girlfriend.

In a writ filed in federal court in Covington, 51-year-old Leonard William Day says his trial attorney should have called a potentially exculpatory witness. Day also claims his attorney failed to pursue evidence of an alternate suspect in the death of Tina Rae Stevens, who disappeared from a hotel near Burlington, Ky., in the southern suburbs of Cincinnati in 1999. Day is serving a 50-year prison sentence.

Stevens' remains were found in April 2000 in a remote section of Boone County.

Day's girlfriend at the time, 54-year-old Deborah Huiett, is serving a life sentence for murder.